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Clearly, the A is for the original die sinker Algernon, but he died, so Archibald took over. He thought he was better and didn't fancy his work being associated with that scoundrel Algernon, so he put the die letter to the other side of the lighthouse. Then along came Augustine who put his A anywhere he felt like, and didn't care what size it was. Sounds logical to me. Simples!!

And a little bit of an update to this - I haven't done a in-depth study of the G with rock/G with no rock from 1861 to 1873, but I have had a brief look. From 1863 to 1873, the pictures I have at hand all seem to show a rock (though a bit faint at times). More interestingly, the 1862 with A to left of lighthouse has no rocks while the 1862 with A to right of lighthouse has a rock, at least from the handful of images I've looked at (https://www.baldwin.co.uk/product/victoria-1837-1901-halfpenny-1862-die-letter-a-rrr/, https://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&auc=124&searchlot=555&searchtype=2, https://www.londoncoins.co.uk/?page=Pastresults&auc=162&searchlot=2355&searchtype=2).